BLESSINGS IN CHASTENING

BLESSINGS IN CHASTENING My Dear Precious Child, In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians which are recorded in My History and Instruction Book called the Bible he chastened the believers there in many, many areas because while he was in Ephesus ministering there he got word that the believers in Corinth were not only returning to pagan practices of sexual sins but they were quarreling among themselves about doctrine. He wrote to them in his first recorded letter and chastened them for allowing sins to remain in the body of Christ without any kind of censorship. Paul chastened the Christians in Corinth for being spiritual babies, still drinking milk but refusing to seek the meat that would cause them to grow into the image of Christ. They were eating food sacrificed to idols, which some of them had also returned to worshiping. He chastening them by asking them if they had begun their walk in the Gospel by means of the Spirit or of the flesh, which was what many of them had adopted into their lives along with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He advised them in the first letter that when they ate food sacrificed to idols that they were eating food sacrificed to demons. Some of the Christians in Corinth were suing other members of the church in pagan court, for which Paul chastised them sternly because of their lack of trust in their own fellow members of the church to be able to mediate between them. Some of the members of the church were questioning Paul's being an apostle because he didn't walk in the flesh with Jesus Christ like other apostles had. Also some of the sins that Paul called to their attention in his letter related to their eating the Lord's Supper where they were supposed to allow the poor to eat first. Instead they crowded to the front of the line and the poor were left with nothing. Another area of concern to Paul was in the ministry of the Holy Spirit of speaking in tongues. The members were using them in a disorderly and ridiculous way, only speaking in tongues during the entire meetings instead of yielding to other gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote to them advice for orderly use of My gifts of the Holy Spirit which brought praises to Me instead of ridicule. In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul also lectured them on things like marriage, the attitudes of the unmarried toward marriage and other matters, acting like a father guiding his children. Paul considered himself their spiritual father and he was embarrassed to hear of their immature, sinful practices in worship and in their lives in the community. In that first letter he gave to the Corinthian Christians both My wisdom and his own wisdom, hoping that both corrections would be put to work in their lives so that My name would be glorified in them. Also in his corrections he lectured them about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the coming resurrection of themselves, because some of them had adopted the teachings of the Saduccees who did not believe in the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ was the basis of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some people had departed from the truth and had yielded to the false teaching of false prophets who were sent to them from the Jewish/Christian churches in Jerusalem. In Paul's second letter to the church at Corinth, he wrote to them about his physical and mental suffering on their account and on My account as a testimony of his being a real prophet, which was still being contested in many churches and also at Corinth. Many things had caused an estrangement between the church and Paul, as attested to in his first letter to them. However, Paul had received word through Titus that the Corinthians had taken his first letter to heart and had corrected most of the sins for which he had chastised them in that first letter of correction. He wrote in the second letter his forgiveness for the person whose sexual sin was being tolerated until Paul wrote about it in his first letter and the necessity of his chastisements in the first letter. He included an apology for his being so stern in his corrections in the first letter, but when he was with them he was mellow. In the second letter, the ministry of the Holy Spirit as being Lord in the earth was stressed to the Corinthians in an effort to stress to them the importance of allowing the Holy Spirit to complete the work in them of molding them into Christ by the renewing of their minds. The old question of his being a true apostle was worrisome to Paul, which was still reflected in his second letter to the Corinthians by his insistance of his being ever much an apostle, and maybe even more than an apostle than the ones in Jerusalem who were dedicated to converting the Jews to being in My kingdom of God. Paul's calling to the ministry to the Gentiles was never less of a calling than the apostles in Jerusalem, and in some ways it was a more necessary calling so that My gospel would be preached to the whole world, which is confirmed in Jesus' teachings in John 3:16-17. Many old covenant prophets had prophesied about My favor being on the Gentiles as well as the Jews when My kingdom came to earth as it is in My heaven which happened on the day of the feast of Pentecost. (Acts 1:1-8; Acts 2:1-41; Acts 9:1-30; Acts 13:44-52) Paul's letters to the Corinthians contain words of correction that have been applicable to all people through the age of the covenant of the Holy Spirit and are still applicable in your life because the devil never ceases to continue to tempt My children to depart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, which brings life, and return to Jewish law, which brings death. Pay heed to the voice of the Holy Spirit and reject the temptation of the devil to yield to false prophets who seek to corrupt My children so that My children will not inherit My blessings while they live on earth. Your Father of Valuable Chastisement